The L.A. Times music blog

72 Hours: Orca Team, Andrea Balency Trio among top weekend gigs

August 4, 2011 | 11:31
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The weekly Pop & Hiss rundown of the weekend's top concerts.

FRIDAY

Orca Team @ The Smell. While Seattle-bred, Orca Team shouldn't have any problem winning over fans in SoCal. After all, overriding all Orca Team touches is a surf rock bent. But this trio isn't a band of beach party revivalists. The tone is more rusty garage than sandy vista, as Orca Team is punk rock stripped of almost all outerwear. Guitars are wire-mesh-thin, trailing the awkwardly youthful urgency of Leif Anders down multiple detours, be it a muted drum break or high-pitched, finger-scraped guitar lines. Break-ups, hook-ups, dead-end jobs and car drives to Vancouver, British Columbia, in which the band makes a point to skip its home city ("it ain't that great") are all tackled with exuberant charm. The Smell, 247 S. Main St., Los Angeles. Admission is $5. -- Todd Martens

SATURDAY

Hard Summer @ L.A. State Historic Park. James Murphy will reunite with his LCD Soundsystem pal Pat Mahoney for a DJ set at the dance-and-hip-hop-focused affair. The Chinatown park will echo with electronic beats, as the day-long festival will feature some of the best beat-makers in the world, including the driving, quirky techno of Duck Sauce, the static-dance of Boys Noize, and the Los Angeles festival premiere of Odd Future, the controversial, buzzing L.A. hip-hop crew. L.A. State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, at 1 p.m. Only $75 and $125 VIP tickets remain. -- Randall Roberts

SUNDAY

Andrea Balency Trio @ Levitt Pavilion. It's a seemingly near-perfect booking, a Sunday evening show at MacArthur Park's Levitt Pavilion as the culturally diverse influences in Balency's music are mixed, matched and blurred to the point where no border can be clearly discerned. Born in Paris and based in Mexico, Balency sings in English, Spanish and French, but the lure here is her arrangements and her downright enchanting voice. She can be lullaby-soft, or Bjork-like weird, using the meows of a cat as a rhythmic counter to her lusciousness. Songs are grounded in a Euro-classical style, but samples are used diligently, and a romantic accordion can be whisked away by a panic-stricken piano. The Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park, near the intersection of 6th Street and Park View Street, Los Angeles. -- TM